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Mumsnet Discussions:
Am I being unreasonable?
: to be annoyed at the blardy silly woman who took faffing to a new level over splitting the bill at a restaurant this weekend??
(146 messages)
I have been for drinks and or dinner and just had soft drinks and 1 course. Have never minded in the least splitting the bill equally between everyone.
oh god, I'll bet that was someone from my family.....my aunt does this.
she also always checks plates to ensure that she has as many peas (for eg) as the next person, as if she doesn;t, then she pays less!!!
she is the reason I always ensure that I give my part of the bill regardless of if I have had alcohol or less to eat etc......tis the easist way and in my mind, what goes around comes around, and next time I may have the most and still just pay the same share!!!!
We all went out for a friends birthday 3 weeks ago.Where 2 of us got drunk (not clever)But we did`nt eat .One of the group a woman kicked off the following MOnday at school saying the meal was shit and it had cost a 100.00 per couple what a waste of money bla bla and then had a go cos I was drunk she said she felt like she had paid for all my drinks.Now we all put in 100.00 and then my dh put in extra to cover the wine my friend and I had drank The cheeky cow has a short memory for when it was her birthday we all went out (I DROVE HER SO SHE COULD DRINK) She picked a mega expensive restuarant bottles of champagne plus a wine from her year of birth: It cost us nearly 300.00. Hasten to say we are all going out again this weekend But she is`nt coming
I have had this with dh's work colleagues. There were 15 of them and after an hour, I went up to the till and paid the whole lot. When I got back to the table they asked me what I had done, I said I wanted to go home not to argue for another hour and everyone could work out what they thought appropriate and give it to dh the next day. I then flounced out (dh was changing jobs anyway). It was very liberating!
I have done that (gone up and paid the bill) and told people to sort it out later cos I can't bear discussing/arguing in front of waiters. For some bizarre reason I get really embarassed
It is bad when there is a fixed service charge, e.g. in Pizza Express they automatically add one if more than 8 people are eating, and people "forget" that when calculating "their share". I don't mean leaving a tip is bad, I mean the fact that in groups people often ignore the fact it is often appropriate to leave a tip.
I always say in a loud voice "oooh the service was really good at this end of the table, did you guys really think it was bad enough to withold the tip?"
We all have friends who try and work out their share, round the amount for drinks down (e.g. a £3.95 glass of wine rounded down to £3) completely forget they had 3, rather than the 2 they pay for etc etc...
I hate the haggling too and prefer to split the bill, however I have been in the situation where some people in a group have ordered numerous bottles of wine and drinks expecting the bill to be split. I think that is unfair for those not drinking alcohol and in that instance I insisted on the bill being individually split. Would have been much better for the drinkers to automatically offer more but that wasn't forthcoming.
I just don't allow that to happen in my company. If I sense this is on the cards, I just take the bill divide it and tell everyone to pay their share and if they object I will tell them either to stop being so bloody penny pinching or if they really kick up I will loudly tell them to pay what they think they owe and get everyone else at the table to put in an extra pound to cover the short fall.
My thinking is that if this mortally offends the misers, well no loss to my social life really I used to be a waitress and this was a hugely irritating part of the job, particularly when stupid women (and it was always women) who were really pissed were professing only to have had one glass of wine
I’ve worked 20 years in the service industry and many of those in fine dining. I learned very quickly that when a large table of broads (and large groups) come in, I make a note of what everyone eats and split the bill myself accordingly. It’s very easy, plus my tip increases because I’ve done the painstaking work for them and it is much appreciated; by those like yourself Yorkshire pudding who doesn’t see the point of fussing about (like me too) and those who want to make sure everyone pays what they spent. Ask the server to do this. Most POS systems have this feature, but the servers don’t tend to be to on the ball here. Just be sure not to move around from your seat. Your seat is your number for the server.
In the case of one or two people not drinking and everyone else imbibing to excess it is fair that they just pay for their food and the rest of the party divide it. It is the ones who bleat about only having a starter and a dessert and two glasses of wine that really piss me off.
i complained to pizza express after our last visit.they said because we had 8 at our table we had to pay 10% of the bill as a tip which was £18 and i didn't think the service we received deserved £18.Also one of the 8 was a baby and not eating. I emailed them to say i wasn't happy and received a cheque for £15 and £40 in vouchers 2 weeks later.
Oh god how embarrassing! This happened at my dear SIL ^hen night^. Her friends were a F*ing nightmare. They did not expect to pay for her meal and were only paying for what they had. My friend and I paid for her meal between us as we were so embarrassed. We then went to a bar and me and friend were last in to find her friends with drinks ordered while dSIL was waiting to be served. They didn't even buy her a drink. DSIL ended night in tears coming home with me and my friend . Crap and rude and ridiculous. If I am having a tight month I either don't go out OR I order cheap things to keep the overall cost down a bit. Grr at them. Awful.
I utterly HATE this. I can't have it at all. Once went on a date (first and only one) with this guy who insisted not only on painstakingly calculating who owed what but even down to the coins - I mean not even rounding it off.
The thing is chequers, that I have come to a stage in my life where I am pretty sure that I don't want to be in social situations with someone who does this. As I said in my post, if I offend them, I won't lose sleep over it.
This type of thing is such a pain. Had it last year at end of school year dinner for mums and teachers. Some bright spark had idea of doing it with the other Yr 1 class. Thought initially good idea as 2 of my best friends were going. Wrong - other class has a large number of odd bods. The ones who insist on bringing husbands even though it is a girls' night.
We got there early and had a bottle of wine before everyone else arrived. Large table. Most people had a starter and a main or a main and a pudding.
People then started to want to leave at around 10pm and wanted to know "how much do we owe as we only had a salad and a water" - to which I commented loudly "why bloody come out then" to discover person asking question hoerving behind me. She still gives me daggers looks.
We paid for 3 bottles of wine between the 3 of us as we know we are bigger drinkers - people still moaned. It took an hour to sort and finally some of us just put in extra. the girl who was trying to sort it out was mortified.
Never again. This year - our class only. Set menu - priced 2 or 3 courses. Alcohol bill and soft drinks bill separately.
I hate this. My friend kicked off big style once about splitting the bill equally because she had no had pudding and most other people had, even though she had managed to drink most of a bottle of wine to herself and others paying the equal share without fussing had not had drank at all. ARGH. She kept going on and on about it, I was embarrassed for her. Even now my mates refer to her as 'that one that made a fuss about the bill at your birthday' FFS! Ironically she dumped her last boyfriend for being tight haha!
I have a friend like this. Recently she came to a small party at ours and brought two bottles of wine. She opened one and said 'if anyone wants to share this it cost me £8.99 so we can work out how much you owe me now to save any trouble later'.
Lots of jaws dropped. Everyone stuck to the 'communal' wine.
This was taken to new levels when out with colleagues from work. One brought her dh. At the end they each whipped out calculators, worked out their individual totals to the penny and each paid their own amount separately. They were really offended when someone made a jokey comment about them being married but he wouldn't treat her to dinner (or something). They said that they earned separately and would jolly well pay their own way and only exactly for what they had consumed.
The other extreme, which used t really annoy me when I worked as a waitress was when people argued over who was paying the whole bill. They would all want to and be thrusting credit cards at me whilst they argued amongst themselves.
Buda she's an old friend and has always been like that. She'll divide taxi fairs down to the last penny, and calculate who owes less, i.e if they were picked up or dropped off first.
God it was like that when I went out with some mumsnetters lately - they were awful - even made me put in 10p extra - just because I had DHs credit card - tight arses!!
I would also always rather split the bill equally to save fuss, but my sister doesn't drink, but will never say anything, so I make a point of saying that she should just pay her share and then we will split the rest equally - it is only fair when one person isn't drinking, especially if others then take advantage of their soberness for a lift!!
Its worse where children are involved. For example I went out to Pizza Hut with my friend and her FIVE children plus my one daughter. 3 of the children including mine had childrens meals the others had full adult meals. Understandably I assumed that we'd all pay for what we ate. Not a bit of it - at the end she turned round and split the bill bang down the middle between the two of usl I paid it but i think it will be a while before I agree to go out with them again!
Normally though I'm more than happy to split the bill evenly and think its by far the best way to do things.
argh! this really gets my goat. on my family hen night, we split the bill and my mum still harks back to it elevenyearslater because my aunt and cousin didn't have a pudding! this was in a Miller's Barn place by the way, not fricking Nobu or anything.
What about going out with another family who have lots of money and 2 kids - that they always order too much food for - adult portions etc that the children don't eat and we {who are not rich} go with 1 kid who has kids meal deal with drinks incl. we don't drink alchol but other parents drink loads. It is always embarressing at the end spliting the bill. What would you do?
I don't mind splitting the bill when I go out for a meal with friends or colleagues. Except for one person who always always goes overboard when we agree to split the bill. We all have a 'normal' meal and drinks - she will have at least two extra courses, order the most expensive thing available and has even ordered food to take home (for her DH and kids) - then expects everyone else to chip in -I DON'T THINK SO
we went out for a meal with another couple recently, we all had starter main course and wine, when the bill came £90, he disappeared to the loo, and she put £20 on the table and said this'll cover mine won't it.
BFTD - similar posts. The women I mentioned does exactly the same when her kids are there, I've got to the point where I have said that we will each pay forour own.
We have tried to split it but cos they have so much money they don't understand that we haven't. We wouldn't mind but their kids don't even eat all this food they order for them! So last time we went somewhere that had a set meal for adults as then it would be easy but then they decided to order off the different menu. It always makes us look really bad and pennypinching, which I guess we are
BFDT - I disagree that it makes you seem like a penny pincher. It does makes her look like a cheeky cow!!
I was just honest and said that we lived on a budget and consequently had to budget for things like this, therefore, we pay for our own. I always suspected that her repeated attempts at flaunting her money was a cover for something. It turned out that they didn't actually have any money Mortgaged up to the hilt and up to their eyeballs in debt), but she liked to project a certain image.
At my friend's hen night one of the girls asked for 1.99 to be deducted from her share of the bill as she had bought the balloons.
I have another crazy friend who is totally obsessed with getting points on her credit card and so always begs to pay for everything and then of course there is total chaos as there is no change etc or others don't have cash, total nightmare every time.
Well, I'm a teetotal vegetarian so I ALWAYS end up subbing other people when the bill is split equally, only once did I say I was intending to pay less, this was due to 9 bottles of wine being drunk between the other 4 people, no way was I subsidising their terrible drunkeness on £50 bottles of wine. When I go out with DH and friends he orders something really expensive and I have the cheapie veggie thing and it just about works out ok for us as a couple. Next time I will count the mushrooms!
We often go out with two other couples, I don't drink, so I always end up driving. We normally split the bill 3 ways, the one couple who always complain are the couple who probably pay the right money. She complained one time to many, and the last time we went out, I insisted we each paid for our own and informed her that if she complained any more I was charging her for taxi service! she always complains about my driving too. I hate going out with her.
hmmm, duno about splittin gthe bill. As a non-drinking veggie I do get a bit fumey about forking out for everyone else's booze n steak. Quite often mine will be about 8 quid (qoute often she says, only been out once in last 3 years!)
I don't drink either but would never do anything but split the bill equally. I don't look at it as paying for what I have consumed, but rather at a payment for an enjoyable evening. Which is why I only go out with people I like and make excuses about nights I can't be arsed with.
oh brought back horrid memories of a meal not to many years ago where one woman in our group of mothers announced when the bill arrived that she would not pay her 'share' as she had not had a pudding and was on soft drinks (many others had not had starters or pudding etc) and when everybody spluttered and raised their eyes to heaven said that she was unable to afford to go really...so she did us a favour then ?
I gave her a very wide berth and I am sure she is still the same to this day.
hideous, hideous, hideous I can't understand people who do this.
i thought it was etiquette to split the bill when there's a big party like this.
but went to an Xmas do once, and we'd all been having wine and such, as you do.
bill comes and i threw in £25-£30, summat like that (i was already pretty ripped by then), as did everyone else, i thought, and went outside with some others for a smoke.
some us were headed to a pub afterwards, so we waited for a colleague to come out.
he came out laughing.
one of the most senior chaps pulled out a friggin' chequebook and calculator, and wrote a cheque for exactly £31.71 for both him and his wife.
we pissed ourselves laughing all night.
he did that other times, too, and no one ever wanted to go out with him anymore.
he once offered to share a taxi with me, but i said i preferred to walk as it was free, then waited at the next taxi rank .
Once went for dinner with 3/4 other couples. One couple arrived late after we'd all ordered some drinks and some mineral water. She made a big point of asking for tap water. We split the bill at the end, but she then deducted the cost of the bottled water from their share of the bill and added it back on to ours.
She got out a calculator to do it. This happened about 8 years ago - dh still goes on about it.
I expect that when it's a huge group that there's no way that you can split the bill and come up with the right amount of money. I do find that in a small group that we always end up paying a lot more than our share though, and it is a problem as I'm a SAHM and three (soon to be four) of us are getting by on one income (or perhaps not; I realised yesterday that we're coming up short each month by £80 ). I don't really understand why people think that it's OK to drink loads and order side dishes when they plan to split the bill. Don't they notice that some of us drink tap water and order the cheapest things on the menu?
Mostly I'm happy with an equal split. However I have had a couple of meals out when I was a student, but everyone else was earning and I've had to ask to just pay my share because I only had £5 so had deliberately had pasta with tomato sauce ~£4 and had drunk tap water. So if I know or suspect someone is hard up and/or has had grossly disproportionately small share of the total, I do try to suggest they should to pay less.
When I go out with friends now I'd be happy to split the bill although we usually pay for what we had (cue a huge amount of faffing around).
But when I was a student and seriously skint and it was someones birthday, I'd hate going to big dinners as I'd alwys have the cheapest thing on the menu and not drink because I couldn't afford to have any more, and then be faced with a big bill when it was split. Bit of a nightmare as I never had any more money in my purse.
i used to work with a colleageu so mean and stingy that she spiled every night out with her tutting, humphing, ordering starters instead of meal to save money refusal to tip carried a bag of change so she could pay to the penny commenting on cost of every item ordered I hope you enjoy your £5 salad etc
We don't tell everyone that we have less money than them, so maybe they just don't think about it. Everyone else we know bought in cheaper parts of the country 7 or 8 years ago (and so have lovely low mortgages) and we are renting in the SE (horrible rent payments), and everyone else we know is a WOHM (although I do appreciate that childcare costs are a real issue). It would be really embarrassing to admit that we don't have the same amount of money. DH and I were talking about it the other day, and we still haven't worked out an answer. If our friends sat down and really thought about it, I'm sure that they wouldn't do it, but it's not the kind of subject that we'd like to bring up.
Sounds like my Mum, Grandmother and Aunties. They all faff about the bills.
Went on a family holiday recently. Was 13 of us, including my DD and nephew. My brother put in HALF of the bill (I tried to refuse, but he was having none of it) - and the others STILL faffed about with 'who owes what.'
Oh I might be the winner for complete and utter tightness.
Dh and I were invited to dinner party by a collegue we both knew a bit. She was new so we thought 'oh why not'. She invited another couple we also worked with.
At the end of a very average roast dinner 9in her flat), as we were sipping our coffee, she pipes up
"OK I've looked at my shopping list and if you could all give me 10 dollars each that would be great"
We were all most taken aback, but as we were all fairly new to living in Queensland we thought this must have been a local custom
I also did begrudge paying an equal share for a dinner where I'd had the cheapest starter and main, no sides, no dessert, no drinks, and several others in the group (who I didn't even know) had expensive dishes, side orders, dessert, loads of wine, and liquer coffees. I ended up paying over £20 for an £8 meal. I paid up though because I didn't want to spoil the meal for the birthday girl.
well I must say that when we went out for our church "girls night out", we did pay for what we'd ordered.......but then there were 32 of us, and many of us simply couldn't have afforded to go if we had to split the cost evenly between us all.......
Mind you, the food was pre-ordered and the church treasurer had already worked out how much we all owed and gave it to us in advance so we knew how much it would be.......
We went out with 16 friends for my birthday in April, I havent had alocohol in 4 years but did that night and somehow I ended up with the bill (Iwork in a bank so people assume I'll deal with it ) anyway wine fuddled my head asked everyone for £35 each paid the bill and had £160 left over,spent ages at bar slightly pissed trying to work out why I had so much money left (I'd forgotton we'd all paid a deposit) so then had to go back to table and hand everyone £10 back, actally everyone was chuffed and we ended up buying 2 bottles of nice champagne with it
Sometimes if there are a couple of non drinkers/drivers we have a seperate bar bill and that gets divided between drinkers and meal between all of us
We had this on DP's birthday - I was six months pg and not drinking, and there was a girl there who insisted on ordering a round of aperitifs that nobody wanted, then said she HAD to order the wine for everyone as she knew about wine. DP managed to order the red, seeing as he drinks red and it was his birthday, and a lovely bottle of port for afterwards. He said he would pay for the port as it was a special treat and quite expensive.
She then moaned about the bill and about the cost of the red wine, and insisted on working out what everyone had, conveniently forgetting that I hadn't been drinking and making me pay the same as everyone else. She didn't want us to pay for DP's meal, so he had to pay for his meal AND the port, and ended up paying double what everyone else paid, on his own birthday!
And she moaned about leaving a tip, really loudly, in front of the really nice waiter who had danced attendance on her all night.
I was the only sober one and . I gave DP the money back for his meal and port later.
I went out for lunch with a group of work colleagues and the person who booked it presented us all with totals afterwards...weighted so that the more senior you were, the more proportionally you paid. So I had exactly the same meal as the people next to me, but paid £4 more than one and £3 less than the other....
If I'm out in a group, I tend to ask first: shall we take account of X [didn't drink] and Y [arrived late] and then split the rest? Seems to work most times - even on MN meetups . I can't help it though, it's the accountant in me...
I think that it's good to split the bill except when you don't know someone else's financial circumstances and you take charge of ordering wine. My sister and her husband went out to dinner with another couple recently and they had brought along a friend who was visiting. He nabbed the wine list off the waiter and ordered a total of four bottles of wine at £65 each. They split the bill evenly and my sister doesn't even drink. I think that's really rude.
Amazingly the few times I have done a HUGE group thing it has all worked out well/ Probably helped by the fact the place wasn't expensive (£8.95 for one course, £10.95 for 2, £12.95 3 courses, House wine £10) Everyone who drank put in £20 - £25 (asked for £20 and then said if you drank a bottle of wine add a bt!!) Ones who didn't paid £15.
Everyone brought cash (bar me ) and it was brill.
I am all for splitting bills unless it is really unfair. But I also wouldn't go somewhere witha crowd that was pricey IYKWIM
we have had this at the works xmas do in the past so now we all have to give £25 if not drinking and £30 if drnking before the meal, like about 2 weeks before, so the person doing the bill at the end can just pay. Works out much better.
I always get embarrassed when I remember one of the first nights out I had with dh's family.
It was dh's 21st birthday & his parents had booked a table at a lovely fancy place in a seaside town. When we had ordered the meal, ate it etc the bill came out. Dh (the boyfriend of about 8months) told me not to bring any money as he was buying my dinner (I felt bad but he was/still is very insistent).
So there they all are, splitting the bill, handing over notes & notes... they wave dh's cash away saying they are paying for the meal..... he tries to insist (still handing money over) they refuse etc.. so in the end he forgets about it & we head toalaybyhome.
The next day his mum told him I hadn't paid my share of the meal He give her the cash then & explained to her that he had tried to give it to her the night before but she drunkenly insisted she didn't want his money!!
Everytime I think about what they must have said about me after I left I get all annoyed at myself for not having my own money with me in the first place!!!
I'd much rather pay my own - because I like puddings & lots of booze & don't want anyone chuntering that they only had lettuce & tap water...
I usually work out what I've had in my head as I go (ex-waitress so good at adding up), add 15% for a tip & plonk it down. If anyone else really wants to faff about sorting the bill then I let them get on with it & settle up any discrepancies. Life's too short!
(but agree it's different if you're on a tight budget & others are expecting you to pay equal shares. Not sure what the answer is there).
I prefer to pay for what I've consumed but it depends - if I've swilled Dom Perignon and scoffed caviar, it's up to me to pay for it and not expect everyone else to subsidise me . In the past I did force a bill to split according to what we'd eaten/drank after the restuarant I'd booked as the party organiser as being middle of the road for all was rejected (as it sold pizza which one girl couldn't decide if she was allergic to or not - she would eat it on one occasion but not on others) in favour of a more expensive steak restuarant nearby. The average bill was £57 a head as one or two people insisted on drinking £40 a bottle wine (which I hadn't). My bill was £18 for a salad and a glass of lager. As I was a student and thus on a tighter budget I stuck to my guns and made them divvy it up more accurately, to my advantage and their distinct disadvantage (I was moaned at for 'making' their meals more 'expensive' -wtf? They ordered it all!!) I don't think non-drinkers should subsidise people who drink or people who eat one course as opposed to three or four, but one system should be agreed on before you order, which was my mistake. And pay for drinks at the bar - they're often 75% of the total cost anyway.
restaurant etiquette might be one thing but I am just gobsmacked at the woman who invited people round to a meal AT HER PLACE and then charged them for it.
Can't believe that couple either who bring a bottle of wine to your house and then take it back with them if it hasn't been drunk.
When i have been out for a meal in a group we normally just split the bill.
Although one time, when i was pregnant with dd, six of us went out for a curry and everyone accept me was downing the booze. Then when the bill came it was split evenly so the other five people i was with payed exactly the same as me, even though they had all had pricey alcohol I was too shy to speak up though
The trouble is, when going out with new friends who are mums, that I seem to have regained some of my drinking capacity, [... I've always loved the pudding bit,] but they - being superskinny and/or pregnant/breastfeeding/trying for another, are almost all tee-total, or thereabouts. This makes me feel really guilty, because I like their company, and, no, there are no swings-and-roundabouts. I always order more.
I then do some mad, slightly tipsy mental arithmetic, where I try to split it evenly for the others but add on an extra fiver for myself, - or perhaps that should be a tenner, often get it wrong [in their favour], so they argue, and we end up splitting the bill evenly, anyway. This isn't as longwinded a process, as yorkshirewoman describes with faffy woman, but I can understand where faffy woman is coming from, cos I'd love to feel free to order more, and then pay for it. I feel otherwise, I'm not being fair.
See, I am probably someone that you would all complain about. We don't have much money and in fact never have (burdened by uni debts, expensive rent, not enough wages). We don't want to not go out at, that would be very sad and anti social, so yes, if we go out and only have a main course and soft drink we would rather pay for what we ate.
It's different if I am out with all my good friends, but a work thing or with people where I don't know everyone, we just don't have the cash to splash around.
I remember one incident when I first started my current job, we all went out for someone else's leaving do to TGI fridays (near work). I din't yet know anyone, I had only been there 2 weeks and therefore hadn't been paid yet, haven't just left a temp job. I had a main course and soda a lime and everyone else had at least 2 courses and cocktails. They all wanted to split the bill and I nearly cried, but didn't say anything as I was so new.
A couple of years later the same situation (though I still didn't have any money) and another girl had joined the team. I warned her what happened last time and neither of us having any money (we were both the youngest, everyone else was older and more established) we said to the organiser before hand that we couldn't afford to split the bill. So when the time came she made a really big deal of saying "right we'll split the bill - oh but Bumper and XXXX are just paying for what they had, so everyone else owes XXXX and they are just paying for their own" making us feel very small and very embarrassed.
OH SO embarrassing. I was a bit like that 20 yrs ago when I was a teenager!! But now you just take it on the chin. The bill divided by the number of people and you hope that the night was worth it. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't!! So what I do now is just eat drink and be merry, no point being abstemious really!
That's fine unless you actually have a finite amount of money to spend that evening. I think all the people saying "well you shouldn't go out then" are being really unfair. Why should the amount I spend on a night out be out of my control?
If had ample money I honestly wouldn't have a problem with it, but it's pretty mortifying going out and knowing that you only have £20 to spend regardless.
ooh, yes the farting about and endless discussions "oh but I had...yeah, though you did have a sidesalad...argh, how awful.
I'm not too bothered - either split it (if everyone had roughly similar), or pay what you had...but discussing it at length is just embarassing and childish.
On the theme of stinginess, we went to a lunch/party, the host had some bread, olives, ham, antipasti stuff out when we got there. DH and I had bought some brie and crackers, another giest had bought some homous, and hey presto, all the antipasti disappeared back into host's fridge, and we were served only what we had brought!
I do try and be aware of whether people have eaten roughly similar amounts, and always sugest that friends pay less if they have fewer in their family/have eaten much less/have had no drinks etc. I would'nt ask somebody to put in extra though, as I'd feel embarassed.
Thankfuly, most people I eat out with (doesn't happen that often!) are good friends, so we go "well, the bill was £60", and then, being good friends, we don't actually want to rip one another off, so we make adjustments for each other ("Em, you should just put in £15 though, not £20, because you didn't drink"...that sort of thing)
Apostrophe - I took around a cake to my xp's mums' house once as she'd invited us for tea. The cake she'd had one the table wasn't served and we ate what I'd taken. Made me laugh like a drain since I'd complained for months about their stingy ways and then they did in front of company!! That occasion it was worth it . The cake she kept back was a 99p one from Sainsbury's btw.
The calculator brigade drive me mad...it seems to happen a lot though.
Last time, at a Christmas do, someone pointed out that the food and drink is only part of it - you're paying for the event and the company.
If you can't handle that, then don't come.
I like the suggestion earlier of asking the server to provide individual bills...probably a good idea to sort it out at the start...though the server should get a very healthy tip for it.
I always go for the split equally option (that's hard enough for me to work out anyway - maths not being my forte). But I used to go out a lot with my ante-natal group (once we were post-natal, that is) and there was onewoman who would always pick the most expensive thing from the specials board...and still, we always split the bill equally...but the really galling thing was...she never bloody ate it. She'd pick blimmin'
. 
at your story TDWP 
